Christmas 2008

In Changwon, it's never cold enough for real snow, so I'd given up hope of a white Christmas in July. There was no sadness there. As a kid, my dad used to plow, so we would always wish for snowless Christmases. This Christmas, with the snowlessness guaranteed, and my family tucked far away on another continent, I wasn't certain what to wish for. I just kind of let Christmas happen. 

On Christmas Eve, I went to a bar called Mujur. It's on a lower level of the Changwon International Hotel. My friend Andy had agreed to play Santa for a great cover band named R.E.D. Andy is the jolliest man I know, and the evening was fantastic. Two glasses of wine, a complimentary Guiness pillow/blanket, and one dance with Santa later, I was tired though. It was one a.m. and I was prepared for the cold, lonely walk through the quiet late night streets.

Strangely, when I emerged from the bar, the streets were far from deserted. All of the stores, the bakeries, the restaurants, the boutiques, were still open and crowded. People in various states of sobriety walked merrily along, stopping into little street vendor stalls for fish on a stick, and various shaped pastries with sweet beans inside. My friends and I even met two chipmunks (well, people in chipmunk costumes) that told us that dressing like  chipmunks reminded them of Christmas and made them feel happy. While I'm still not certain how it reminded them of Christmas, it made me happy too. Sleep was warm and tinsly. 

The visions of sugar plums were short lived, though.  I'd invited a few exceptionally wonderful people to my house for some pre-church Christmas cheer, eggs, and a wide assortment of caffeinated beverages. I really enjoyed everyone's company, and was so happy to be doing something that actually felt like Christmas.  Our pre-church breakfast went well enough that I think baby Jesus would be proud (except the questionable playlist that included songs by Bad Religion and let us listen to the Bloodhound Gang's "The Roof is on Fire" as we went out the door on our way to the service).

Christmas was sunny, bright, warm, and cheery. The entire day filled me with joy, and the evening proved the best part of all. At 8:45pm, Eric, my boyfriend and best friend, stepped off a plane into the Korean wonderland that is my daily life. 

The Daily Life in Holiday Mode

I've been prolonging writing an entry until I had some pictures, but I still don't have pictures and 20 days is too long to continue with my procrastination. So I will write to you about my daily, pictureless, life.

My university classes are now over, and instead I now meet my friends at Paris every morning at 7:30 am. Paris is our lovingly romantic nickname for Paris Baguette, the local bakery, where even the garlic bread has sugar on it. Bread is a Western concept, and Koreans don't seem to understand that bread is not the same as cake, and that all bread should not be sweet (strangely, one of my favorite foods here is a slightly sweetened pastry with spicy chicken and vegetables tucked yummily away in the center). 

Breakfast is not the reason for our daily meetings, though. Instead, we wait for our Master to come pick us up in a black van. Do not be alarmed; I have not joined a Satanic cult. No, I have joined hapkido.  Five days a week, for an hour, five crazy waygooks and a wonderful Korean woman practice hapkido (a traditional form of Korean martial arts) at a hagwon. For the most part, we're all hopelessly out of shape, and it's quite a comical experience; however, Elizabeth assured me that if I worked out for five days a week for 7 months I'd be in better shape than I am now. 

After rolling on my head and punching things for an hour, I work a hopelessly long day before going to yet another Korean hagwon (you'd think working at a hagwon for 9 hours a day would be enough). This hagwon is called "Jazz Belly", and even more ridiculous than the name is the fact that I've begun belly dancing too.  Several of the women from work and I shake our jingly scarves and body parts to an interesting amalgam of English and Korean pop music, which was very impressively combined with a poppy version of "The Little Drummer Boy" tonight. The whole experience is hopelessly embarrassing, but I find myself consistently drawn back for more.

My spontaneous Korean life seems to be getting ridiculously scheduled, but I'm enjoying all of it. My only concern now is finding enough time to prepare for Christmas- only ten more days!

Happy Thanksgiving

November is a long month in Korea. Americans are spoiled by the Thanksgiving break, which, due to a lack of pilgrims and Native Americans, does not exist in Asia. It would be easy to get discouraged, except that I have children all around me who are constant reminders that the little moments of goodness are what life is all about.

According to one of my writing classes, three out of five 8 year olds agree, the key to being a good friend is being willing to share your pencils and erasers. It's moments of childhood simplicity like this that make me happy, and always thankful.

Happy Belated Pepero Day!

On Tuesday, I had the unique experience of participating in my first (and probably last) Pepero Day. For years, people in America have been mocking Halloween and Valentine's Day as  Hallmark Holidays, or holidays invented by the candy companies. I have enough capitalist sense to know that the candy companies do help perpetuate these holidays, but I also have enough historical knowledge to know that these celebrations are based on years of tradition rather than just an excuse to succumb to one's sweet tooth.

In Korea, things are a bit different though. Every year, on November 11th, while Veterans in America attend memorial services, Koreans eat candy, more specifically, they eat Pepero. Pepero are thin breadstick like things coated in chocolate. They're a tasty treat, but I'm not certain they deserve their own holiday. Nonetheless, 11-11 is unofficially Pepero Day here in Korea (because the date so closely resembles the phallic cookies). Couples and friends exchange the ridiculousness as symbols of their affection. There is a rumor that Lotte helped market the candy after sales dropped off each year in November, but that's unconfirmed.  What is official, is that the holiday was invented by a candy company, and that a few days, and a stomach ache later, I'm still marveling at the good marketing. It really is enough to make me sick. 

Halloween

So Halloween came and went in a blur. It wasn't nearly the same this year, but it never really stood a chance. Kid's Club was cheap, and decided to have the Halloween party the day before Halloween- the photographer was less expensive. I went as the logical thing: a zombie ajuma.

The Tale of the Barking Lockers

E-mart is Korea's multi-level version of Walmart. I needed speakers (which I forgot about and didn't buy) and groceries for a special Halloween snack for my Kindergarten kids (which I didn't end up making), so I took a walk to E-mart last night. The walk itself proved interesting.

I got a rock in my shoe. What's interesting about a rock? Nothing. Except that I had to lean against the lockers at E-mart to get the rock out, and the lockers started barking at me. So I jumped backwards, shoeless, and took a closer look at my surroundings. 

Apparently you can't bring bags or dogs into the store.

How I Became a Hand Model

Halloween Hand!

I love Halloween, so I decided to do the logical thing and get a manicure: an orange and black manicure, of course! Nails aren't done quite the same here as they are in the States, though. Crazy colors with random designs are the style, and the designs aren't airbrushed- they're all HAND PAINTED using acrylics. I had decided on my plan of action: every other nail orange and black (alternating) and on the orange nails I wanted black dots. Little did I know how talented my beautician is. She suggested that she paint a Jack-o-Lantern on my nail, looked one up on the internet, and.....vala!  I'm more impressed with my manicure than any other one in my life, and apparently the beautician liked it a lot too. She took a picture, and put my nifty little design on a board advertising the different nail styles the salon could do! 

Familiarity with the Twilight Zone

 

It began with the subway, and a midget who was very careful to hide his cell phone screen. When I moved, he followed me. The paranoia set in. Was he taking pictures of me? 

A few stops later, the man left, and shortly after we did too. Angela, Elizabeth, and I were going on an adventure in Busan, Korea's second biggest city. We were going hiking.

Geumjeongsan Park is located in the city. A short walk from the subway a cable car (or path for the more fit) leads up a mountain to the remains of  an ancient fortress.  At first we thought we'd gone the wrong way, so we enlisted the help of a strange, overly helpful Korean man. He lead us through a mountain path with rusted carnival rides. The rides were running, but there was almost no one in the park. The path was lined with little concession carts that sold soju and children's toys. They were the kind of toys you find at a garage sale, dirty and antiquated. There were no children.

The Korean man left us at the cable car, where more Korean men took an interest in us. One man tried to lead us away from the car to an outdoor meal, while another man unabashedly took photos of us.  We refused the food, and braved our luck with the cable car. It took a few extra minutes, because the maintance man was busy scraping rust off the sides and top of the car. The view was gorgeous.

When we reached the top of the mountain, the photo man tried to follow us down a path. We changed directions. We tried to find food without scary, persistent men. The ajuma (a married woman, but it is used negatively to depict an older woman with no fashion sense) laughed at us. She brought us migooks (Americans) to the attention of all of her other diners. We left, and continued down the path.

Past the  South Gate of the ancient fortress, we veered right down a sharp and winding road. Surreal farmland surrounded us: we were in the heart of the nation's second largest city; men and women were weeding their gardens by hand, and we couldn't see the skyscrapers. It was nothing like Central Park. 

We came upon a large gate way that in English and Hangul read  "Black Goat Village". A woman motioned about food, and since we were in search of goat meat (Geumjeongsanseong Park is known for it) we followed her. We grew apprehensive as she guided us down tortuous alley ways amidst small farm houses. We followed the woman through eerily quiet streets to a place where we would never have followed a man, and we were rewarded with one of the most interesting diners I have ever had.

We ordered goat and mekale (a Korean rice wine that is white and milky), and began to eat our feast.  After eating quite a bit of food, I was surprised by a large chunk of hair attached to a piece of meat. The hair was definitively black, but I didn't really need that much reasurance that I was eating a black goat. Nonetheless, the meal was delicious.

After diner, we began walking home through the same farms that our side dish vegetables had been picked in and the fields our dead goat had grazed in; however,  we soon discovered we were actually walking into Oh My Land, the actual name of a place in the center of the park. Rather than explore past sunset, we took a bus back to the skyscrapers of Busan, and to Haeundae Beach- Korea's most popular ocean site.

There we enjoyed the sand, stars, and conversation (with Mekju [beer] of course). We also paid $60 to sleep on the floor.

Now that I've returned from my Busan adventure, I realize the strangest part about the trip is the retelling of it. After three months here, my day seemed quite normal for Korea. It didn't strike me that anything was that odd until I tried putting it into words. The strange is becoming familiar, or maybe I just watched the Twilight Zone one too many times.

 (I've listened to the comments, and posted bunches of pics. Besides Busan, I've included pictures from the annual Lantern Festival in Jinju. Elizabeth and I went there Friday night, and we went on our Twilight Zone adventure on Saturday. Enjoy!)

Autumn

While I was walking to Korean class, I noticed that something was different. As I walked, there was a strange silence, and I realized that the cicadas were quiet. The next morning, fall came. It was September 24, and nature was on schedule. The temperature dropped 20 degrees overnight.

I worried that fall would be a lonely time for me. I'm living in a country that does not celebrate Halloween, has no pumpkin picking, and no apple cider; however, Korea has its own way of celebrating the fall that I'm loving more and more.

Man Eating Fish

A Pedicure Pic

In a recent comment, I was asked if the Seoul trip involved naked women doing pagan rites by the light of the full moon. I know it will disappoint many of you, but, alas, there was no pagan moon dancing. This does not mean that we had a boring trip though. We still managed to have a great time by substituting man-eating-fish for the pagan rites. 

For two thousand won and the price of a cup of coffee, people can visit Dr. Fishy. Dr. Fishy is the generic term for man-eating-carp. One might wonder how something as unusual as man eating carp might have a generic name, but in Korea, the unusual is the familiar. The carp are baby carp with no teeth. The tiny fish are trained to nibble the dead skin off people's feet. Fortunately, living skin is too tough for the fish to penetrate. 

As a lover of pedicures, I could not pass up the chance to have a one on one meeting with the Dr. Fish.  Apparently others thought it was a great idea too. We dragged a French man and an Australian woman from the hostel along with us to the Restree Cafe. It was a great experience, although it should probably come with a warning for the ticklish. 

With our feet only slightly gnawed, we decided to walk to the Seoul Tower. We took the cable car up the mountain, and enjoyed the beautiful view of the full moon. There were swarms of people on the mountain, enjoying Chuseok as families and lovers. While my family and many friends are far away, on the Korean Thanksgiving day, I was thankful to have made two good friends right here in Korea. 

The Harvest Moon

Jen, Elizabeth, Linsey, Me

I've always been fascinated by lunar cycles and ancient lunar religions, so you can imagine my happiness when I discovered that Korea has not one, but two holidays devoted to the moon. While the Lunar New Year has more world wide renowned, Chuseok, the harvest moon celebration, is by far the largest national holiday in Korea. The harvest moon falls on the eighth full moon of the calendar year (usually in October), and is celebrated both the day before the moon and the day after. 

The Friday before Chuseok, we had a celebration at our school. We wore the traditional style Korean clothing called Hanboks, and we played traditional games like Jigachagi (the Korean version of hackysack). The best part of the day was seeing the kids in their hanboks. Each one of them looked absolutely gorgeous (sadly, my camera was MIA for the day, and I'm still waiting for my coworkers to send me the pictures). I felt like a proud mother showing off her own kids when we went to the park to play the games.

The rest of the holiday I spent in Seoul (the capital city of Korea) with my new friends Jen and Elizabeth. We had a great time, and they proved wonderful travel partners (who happen to be exceptionally slow at sending pictures).

To Be Continued.....

(awaiting photographs)

Stranger than Sci Fi

Alex's son and a worm- before he tore it in two.

Sangnamdong a few hours before neon.

When I learned that I would be an alien from the future (thank you Dad for the title), I had no idea that I would really step into a science fiction novel. In Sangnamdong, the neighborhood where I live, there are buildings called officetells. The businesses are randomly  interspersed throughout many stories, and on the other floors there are apartments. You have to constantly look up to see the signs for restaurants and shops. Underground, the basements are a web of bars, and convenience stores. At night, the place looks like the epitome of overcrowded-neon-glowing-sci-fi-land. The only thing missing is the hover crafts that get you directly to the tenth floor norabong (karaoke). 

In Korea, it is impolite to use the given name of someone older than you. So women call older women une (older sister) and older men opa (older brother). It's as if the society grew knowing that no sci-fi world would be complete without a big brother. There are cameras everywhere. The classrooms have cameras, the convenience stores, elevators, and hallways. Korea has special traffic cameras that monitor you when you go through red lights, and through bridges. They watch people on the street, and you can tell someone is watching, because if you're parked illegally too long the rotating cameras start to fix on you and stare. Big brother really is always watching.

When we went fishing today, I thought it would be a brief reprieve from the sci-fi scare, but things only got scarier. I was confused as to why Alex (the woman who took us fishing) was afraid of the worms. Some women are squeamish, so I did the natural thing and chased her around with a worm. All was going well, until her husband told me I was putting the worm on the hook incorrectly. Unbeknownst to my backward thinking Western ways, it seems worms have mouths here. Not only do they have mouths, but they also have teeth- and bite. Ignorance really is bliss, because afterwards I was not nearly as confident handling the spineless creatures as I shoved hooks down their mouths.  I'm still waiting for the mutated ones (I know they're out there. I am entrenched in science fiction land, after all) to come and eat me in my sleep.

Fun in Afghanistan

Neon soju that is slightly more expensive (3,000 won), but tastes like Coolaide. 

I teach two kindergarten classes. The day is made up of forty minute periods, and I have one of the classes throughout most of the day; however, the second to last period I switch to the other class to teach them from a book called World Kids. This week we began the unit called "Fun in Afghanistan".  We learned about Afghanistan culture, and comparisons. For instance, most places in the world, right now, are more fun than Afghanistan. We also learned about price comparisons and the concepts of cheap verses expensive, which as a 27 year old (Korean Age) in a completely new culture I am still struggling with understanding.

Prices here are quite screwy. You can easily get Gimbap for 2 American dollars or 2,000 won; water bottles are 500 won (50 cents); and you can get cheaply intoxicated with a 1,000 won bottle of soju (although in all fairness it might take two bottles, which does double the price).

Meanwhile, other common place Western items are either unattainable or ridiculously pricey. Last weekends trip to Cosco set me back 21,760 won for 32oz. of Mozzerella cheese, a luxury item that can only be found at a store like Cosco. Roughly 10lbs of beef cost almost 256,000 won.

While Westerners seem to have little trouble paying the ridiculous Costco prices, when it comes to dinner their ideas of cheap vs. expensive seem to change over time. Paying over 5,000 won for dinner is often considered far too much here. The average cost of dinner for three is usually under 20,000won ($20).  It actually becomes cheaper to go out to eat than to buy food to cook at home. 

Manicures

Work has been very stressful. There is always a lot to learn the first month at any new job, and it stands to reason that the stress level would compound in a new country. The test making, grading, and report cards are almost finished, though, and I'm slowly relaxing into the general swing of things.

I got a manicure yesterday to help me calm down, and those few moments of bright colors combined with the absence of text books did the trick.  It is nice to have a cross cultural coping mechanism for a stressful day (although as a waygook I was not treated to the lotion hand massage that the person next to me received. I'm not certain if it was part of a special package for the person next to me, or part of a special exclusion for the waygookin).

Today several of my students complimented me on my new manicure. Oddly though, it was the boys who did most of the noticing- while simultaneously showing me their manicures. Out of the five who mentioned my wicked cute orange-with-white-polka-dot digits, three were boys with nails just as bright as mine {although the boys didn't have matching pedicures like I do :-) }. 

Between the adorable children and the manicures (and the awesome gender-bending combination of the two), there are plenty of moments to brighten up my report card filled days. 

Coworker Bonding

On Saturday, I saw a completely new side of my coworkers. It all began as a simple rafting trip in the country, and turned into an experience in coworker bonding that could only happen outside of America.

For 24,000 won (approximately $24), we had an amazing ride down a Korean river. The water was far from rapid riddled, but the Koreans made it exciting by instigating raft wars with us whenever they passed. I think our raft lost the splashing wars, but the scenery and the laughter compensated for our lost victories. We emerged from the water sopping wet and in desperate need of showers. It so happened that a shower was included in our 24,000 won.

We proceeded to a public bath house or "spa", and the very public bathing area. There, my female coworkers and I bathed together. The spa had a variety of hot tubs, sitting showers, standing showers, cold water tubs, saunas, and a strange warm pool of green water that was supposed to do "something good for half of your body" (many things get lost in translation). Children and adults bathed together in total acceptance of cleanliness and nakedness (although us waygook {foreigners} did get more than our fair share of curious glances). Friends sat on the floor of the sauna drinking green tea and talking; women washed their daughters' hair.

While I doubt that the Kid's Club staff will adopt the Korean style of frequenting the bath houses together, I think it was a cultural experience we all appreciated- even in its awkwardness. 

South Korea Runs on Dunkin'

I found a local Dunkin' Donuts yesterday and decided to try a cup of American coffee, but instead I ended up with a uniquely Korean experience. Along with coffee, a wide array of lattes, and the name defining donuts, Korean Dunkins' serve a wide variety of fine cakes and pastries that at the very least look freshly prepared and quite beautiful. 

I decided on a donut in the end though, or, more precisely, a Honey Glutinous Rice Stick (which was actually rather tasty if you like sticky rice cakes), and a 12 Grain Latte (an experience which will never be repeated). It was a difficult choice considering my options: Mango Chewistas, Coconut Cocoa Donuts, Honey Fig Sticks, and Green Tea Old Fashioneds. My stomach still hurts from the 12 Grain Latte, and I'm still trying to figure out what part of a donut made from green tea is old fashioned. Nonetheless, I feel the pressing need to go back and try the Chewistas.

Answers to a Few Questions

I've received many questions about Korean culture, food, and style. I hope this entry answers a number of your questions: 

The entire country is like a small town with a 1950's mentality and an eighty's fashion sense. Strict moral/ cultural guidelines rein supreme here, and are adhered to as strictly as the standard youth wardrobe of converse and oversized T-shirts (complete with bad or obscene English phrases). 

Women here wear ridiculously short skirts and shorts, but do not show any cleavage. Besides the oversized eighty's tops, they wear T-shirts under tank tops and sundresses. The women care more about fashion and propriety than almost anything else. They would rather wear high heals to climb a mountain (and do wear high heals to climb mountains) than to look bad.

Women do not smoke in public here. There are ash trays in every bathroom, because while men are allowed to light up in almost every restaurant and outdoor space, if a woman were to do the same she would be considered a whore or harlot. 

While a woman with a cigarette is considered loose, she is not nearly as loose as the prostitutes who come by van load onto the street to peddle their wares. These women also smoke, and they do not carry parasols (another standard in Korean fashion). They have no need to keep the sun off their skin, because they only come out at night. The girls are beautiful, and expensive.

If you don't have the million won for a girl of your very own, some of the DVD rooms and Norabongs have women willing to lend you a hand.

Prostitution is probably Korea's largest area of criminal activity. Prostitutes and strip clubs are illegal here, but none of the laws are very strongly enforced. It is so safe, even in the city, that many people do not lock their doors.

As for the food, Koreans like spicy and that suits me well. The country is trying to incorporate more Western foods into their culture, but often get them horribly wrong. Everything is sweet here, except the pastries and cakes which are remarkably bland. So far my favorite thing is the sugar covered multi-grain crackers.  What at first appears to be normal, usually ends up being the most strange.

I'm still learning about the people and culture here, and I definitely don't have it all figured out yet; however, no matter how long I stay here, I don't think I'll ever get used to people bringing a pool with them to the beach (see picture at top).

Summer Vacation

One of many gorgeous views from APEC park.

Me looking silly next to a light house at APEC park.

This week I had off from work. At first I viewed it as a misfortune to be off so close to my arrival; however, I now see it as a blessing in disguise. 

My Korean teachers at work took pity on me and decided to entertain me Monday. We went to  APEC park. In 2005 the city of Busan hosted the Asian Pacific Economics Cooperation conference, and built an entire, beautiful, park for the occasion. The park is complete with a bouncy walking/jogging track full of entertaining speed walkers and a gorgeous ocean view.

On Tuesday I went to Korean class. Korean class is absolutely free and run by a Korean man named Sunny (Korean name unknown). Beyond learning essential Korean phrases there, I have also met many fellow foreigners from all parts of the world and many Koreans. 

Today I went to the beach in Busan. I've met a friend through church (yes, I go to church here), and her and her Korean husband took me.  There apparently was some debate as to whether Korea had waves. Today Henry (the husband) proved his wife wrong: there are indeed very large waves in Korea. The unfortunate side effect of the waves is that many Koreans can't swim. While there is no direct correlation between the two things, the unfortunateness was due to the fact that they did not allow us in the water in order to protect the land loving Korean population. All in all, it was still a wonderful day and I look forward to what the rest of the week will bring.

Nota Bene: Korea seems to be greatly affecting me already. The line about waves being the reason Korean's can't swim is similar to the comment I received from one of my students about basketball. It seems that Korean boys are under the impression that if you want to be tall, you should play basketball.  ::sigh::

Bad Spelling, Pat Bean Su, and Norebong

 Norebong!                        

Pat Bean Su

My clumsiness is officially transcontinental! Yesterday, all of the kindergarten classes met in the gym to make Pat Bean Su: a traditional Korean summer dish made from frozen milk, sweet red bean paste, gummy candy, fruit cocktail, watermelon, and chocolate or strawberry syrup. All of the students wore aprons to protect them from the sticky mess, but, in typical Carrie fashion, I somehow managed to spill the mixture all over the back of one of my students. Apparently Asia has not improved my graceful powers.

I also can't sing very well in Asia, but my singing is more highly encouraged here. Yesterday, after a farewell dinner at Outback, we all went to a Norebong, or Korean Karaoke club. Wigs, hats, hilarity, and, of course, Karaoke ensued. I think I've fallen in love with the South Korean citche.

들다

On the 4th, and 9th days of every month (14th, 29th, etc), there is an open air market in Sangnam dong. Amongst the neon lights and strangely modern shops, the open air market seems to be the last vestige of a simpler world, and the special keeper of the most exquisite grapes I have ever tasted.  

While the grapes are by far the best food I've had in Korea, Gimbap is by far the worst. I've learned that the "ham" is often SPAM, and even when it isn't, I still don't like it. I'm sort of disappointed in myself for the failure of my tastebuds, especially since gimbap is the cheapest meal in town.

Don't worry, I do eat more than grapes. Korea has an excellent variety of Korean, Chinese, Japanese, and American foods. Besides my almost daily intake of Kim Chi, I've also eaten at a KFC, and TGI Fridays (where Kim Chi is still served on the side). 

Hello from The Future

An accidental field trip to the City Center, and the fountain fun.

After Jessica thoroughly surprised me at Sunday's brunch, and I cried my eyes out at the airport, I found myself excited and mesmerized by the little patches of light nestled in the mountains of Busan. I arrived in Busan at 8:45pm at night, and found myself driven through a web of highways to a dong (or neighborhood) with gaudy neon lights and its own sort of charm.

My first few nights I spent in the "love motel", the equivlant of a seedy American pay by the hour joint. The girl who I replaced wasn't leaving until Friday, and so I was put up in my surprisingly clean room of love (complete with complementary Korean condoms) until my apartment was free.

The next day, I was escorted to my new school. The teachers there are ridiculously helpful, and my students (Jupiter Class Kindergarten) are ridiculously advanced for Korean aged 7 year olds.

Notice how I specify "Korean Age". In Korea, you turn one when you are born, so their version of 7 is our version of 6. I find myself saddened by the fact that I'm 27 here, but a year and 1/2 day in the future is looking to be a good time (and as Afshin pointed out, I get to be a perfect cube twice!)

My "Friendly" New Neighbors

Anyone who knows me well, knows that I'm completely clueless when it comes to world affairs. Since I decided to become an expat, I've taken a more active interest in global news. Last night I fell asleep listing to CNN, and woke up to a live press conference where Bush discussed the benefits of new North Korean news. It seems North Korea made a formal declaration of certain nuclear materials . I thought this seemed a fortuitous event in the time line of my trip- until I realized that all news is some form of propaganda.

Snuck in to the CNN stream was a microscopic announcement of South Korean Riots as a result of US Galbi (Beef) imports. Apparently, the US has no problem allowing beef, possibly contaminated with Mad Cow Disease, to be exported to SK. Of course, this negative aspect of the US cattle industry was given barely any press time. We have to make the US look good no matter what, after all.

The US isn't the only, and far from the worst, manipulator of wold news, though. Check out the interesting rhetoric of the North Korean Newspaper  about us US warmongers. We might now know more information about their nuclear arms, but they definitely like us just the same.

My International Mac

I love the people on the internet who actually know what they're doing with computers, and post tutorials on how to do useful things. Look Mom, I'm typing in Korean!

~개 리 안

BBQ, Visas, and Goodbyes

Dal Rae took me to get Korean BBQ last weekend. The night was filled with lots of surprises that reminded me why I'm going to Korea. All of the research in the world can't prepare you for real life, and I'm going for adventure.

I've hit the last stretch of my USA time: I'm waiting for a Visa issuance number that is taking longer to get to me than anticipated, and saying goodbye to some dear friends and colleagues. I'm worried about the Visa, and thankful for the friends. 

Thank you, especially, to the PSC staff who were wonderful to me.

Hangul

Sounding vaguely like a curse word or euphemism for something foul, the name for the Korean Alphabet, Hangul, is giving me something to curse about. Now that I've figured out how to write my name in the strange and modern letters, I need to find a way to be able to type in the language (for free) on my ibook.  

Typhoid

"Around 430-426 B.C., a devastating plague, which some believe to have been typhoid fever, killed one third of the population of Athens, including their leader Pericles. The balance of power shifted from Athens to Sparta, ending the Golden Age of Pericles that had marked Athenian dominance in the ancient world."   wikipedia

I've done my research on what vaccinations I need before South Korea: Typhoid, Hepatitis A & B, Japanese Encephalitis, and possibly a rabies shot.  Just the name, typhoid, sends a few chills down my spine. Hell, the disease brought down an entire city-state, and I'm supposed to inject weakened or dead parts of the disease into my body; though, I do suppose being injected with typhoid is better than the alternative: the disease is passed on through water contaminated with feces.  Yum.

Easter Sunday 2008

When I first said, "I'm moving to Korea", no one believed me. My family was standing in the kitchen drinking coffee. It was too early in the morning to think about the other side of the world, and yet somehow I'd already managed to submit an application to a Korean school recruiter. I'd done absolutely no research, and I wasn't certain I believed myself.

Now, a little less than two months later, I'm firmly committed to my expat adventure. At the beginning of July, I will  be moving to Changwon, South Korea.